9) Aaron, DC - Male, White, Late 20s
Aaron is a friend and fellow MBA student at MSB. In his previous life, he was a booking agent for 6th and I in DC, a mid-sized venue that hosts a variety of acts, but likes to focus on indie rock. He explained to me how the booking process goes on his end. I won't go into details here, but essentially it is 1/3 of his job and takes a fair amount of time. That time is mostly spent vetting bands - figuring out if they work for the space, if they are reliable, if they can draw a crowd, etc. He said that even though they are mid-sized and typically pulled national acts, they would still consider local acts and emerging artists. Sometimes he would even reach out to artists on his own (rather than them contacting him) b/c he had heard them somewhere or heard good things about them. They often did emerging artist showcases, too.
A real challenge for Aaron was getting the info he needed upfront. Many bands wouldn't be 100% truthful in the info they sent out. Another challenge was selling the space to people who hadn't heard of the venue (this is more for established acts).
He liked the hub idea, but mentioned the competition (Reverb Nation & Poll Star). He understood, though, that we were filling a different niche and thought that small venues would benefit from our service (bars, etc.).
He really wants to see the bands being monitored by someone to ensure that awful acts aren't going through. "There needs to be trust."
Key Takeaway: This is viable, but there are points that need to be covered; specifically trust.
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